Remembering KRGV Sports Director Dave Brown

An icon, legend and fixture of the Rio Grande Valley sports scene is how longtime KRGV sports anchor, sports director and special contributor Dave Brown will be remembered.

Brown, who died Monday in Brownsville, spent over 40 years covering sports across the Valley before ultimately retiring from KRGV in December 2020.

“There’s not too many of us that were around at the time, probably a handful, that were coaches with Dave Brown and the coverage he gave us and our athletes. You know how special Rio Grande Valley football is, it’s something special, and Dave Brown had a big part of what Rio Grande Valley football is about because of the exposure he gave our athletes,” PSJA ISD athletic director and former PSJA North football head coach Orlando Garcia said. “We relied on information that he was putting out there. You’d watch the newscast at night to see who’s doing good, get any information you can get and learn about teams and learn about athletes because he did a great job of giving exposure to athletes in the Rio Grande Valley.”

His coverage of high school football kept the excitement going from the field to the closest television for highlights Friday nights. He introduced segments like 60 Sports Seconds and Dave’s Dozen, weekly high school football rankings of the area’s top teams, which became must-see mainstays on channel 5 for coaches, fans and players alike.

“Growing up, he was the face of Valley sports. He was our Chris Berman here in the RGV before ESPN,” Sharyland ISD athletic director and former Sharyland High football head coach Ron Adame said. “One of the first things that comes to my mind is Dave’s Dozen with his top 12 teams. It was a very hard list to get on and you knew you had a good team if you made it on his list and that’s what most people watched. You could tell he was very passionate about what he did and a good journalist.”

Brown’s creativity and delivery was something others in sports media attempted to emulate. His impact reached beyond the high school sports scene, as well, by broadcasting games as the voice of University of Texas-Pan American basketball.

“He was a legend in the Rio Grande Valley sportscape, best known for his contributions at KRGV being the guy you’d watch to see what happened in sports that day,” UTRGV senior associate athletic director for communications and championships Jonah Goldberg said. “He was a giant in the industry here in the Valley and I really appreciated his point of view, the way he presented things and the way he did his job.”